Astronaut Chris Hadfield Shares Cooking Tips In Space

Astronaut Chris Hadfield recently took to the Canadian Space Agency’s YouTube channel to demonstrate how he prepares a peanut butter and honey sandwich aboard the International Space Station. Hadfield is part of the crew known as Expedition 34, which currently occupies the station. The end result of Hadfield’s efforts is spartan but almost certainly still tastier than airline food.

As reported by The Huffington Post Canada, the tubes of edible paste commonly associated with space food have given way to more conventional foods on modern space expeditions. Still, some concessions must be made. In the case of Hadfield’s sandwich, tortillas are used instead of bread (which can lead to crumbs floating around and contaminating the space station). Food must also be specially-packaged in an oxygen-free environment to ensure its longevity.

When Chris Hadfield isn’t demonstrating his zero-gravity culinary chops, sending tweets to William Shatner, or banging out the first song to ever be written and recorded in space, he still has plenty of activities to occupy his time. According to NASA, Expedition 34 is running experiments to determine how surfactants (such as soap) react to a microgravity environment. The crew is also examining how living creatures’ cardiovascular and bone systems are affected by spaceflight.

On Tuesday morning, the International Space Station briefly lost contact with NASA following a software update to the station’s main computer. The crew was able to re-establish communications with Mission Control Houston shortly after the malfunction.

Such work-related stresses no doubt jog one’s appetite. If you were orbiting earth with Chris Hadfield aboard the ISS, what foods would you miss most from home?